gatefandomcom-20200214-history
Oprichnina
:"Charging troops to their doom and executing them for being rational are their specialty and the only best thing they can do." — Haryo tribe's goal in conquering the Empire from the inside out, depicted in volume 8 chapter 9 of the light novel. The Oprichnina, also known as the "Cleaners", are a paramilitary organization instituted by Prince Zorzal El Caesar as a special measure to supposedly restore the weakened authority of emperor Molt Sol Augustus following his poisoning and long period of illness, while in actuality is an instrument to enforce the Prince's rule and remove any dissent within the imperial nobility and military over his plan to reignite the armed conflict against Japan. Following Zorzal's Coup, the Oprichnina started to act mainly as a secret police and political commissariat for the Empire. Their name is an abbreviation of "Ougi Pri Rih Ric Chn Ivn Ni Nassen", which translated to English means "Committee for Protecting and Restoring the Emperor's Sovereignty and Authority". They are well-known for prosecuting pro-peace senators and absolute loyalty to Zorzal, which rivals his stupidity, bad judgement, strategic blunders, lack of common sense and poor relationship with Imperial Army as a whole. They are the embodiment of Zorzal's failure and suicidal ruthlessness since throughout the war with the JSDF, whenever there are presences of the Oprichnina, there always be not only failure for the Imperial Army but also senseless butchery suffered by the Imperial Troops. The Oprichnina was disbanded after the JSDF and the Loyalist wiped out Zorzal's force along with his death. Equipment and Uniforms The Oprichnina wear distinctive kobold hats which obscure their faces, as well as dark purple cloaks held on by wolf's head shaped pin. Their attire also includes brown tunic and black pants. They are armed with staves about a meter long, with a "broom head" at the end, symbolic of the their role of "cleaning" the Empire of undesirables. This staff can be used as a club, and the broom head can also be pulled back, revealing a spear head, allowing the staff to be used like short spear in the event the Oprichnina has any intention of using lethal force. Attitude :Imperial troops: "You want us to die?" :Oprichnina member: "As if. If you win, you live. So win! Go and win!" — The Oprichnina members show their absolute disregard for the life Imperial troops, battle tactics and even rationality during the JSDF Blitzkrieg Offensive as they force the Imperial troops to suicide-charge at the JSDF tank platoon, depicted in Volume 8 Chapter 8 of the light novel. The relationship of the Imperial troops and Oprichninia towards warfare can be summed up as lions led by donkeys since most of the time they seem to incline to the logic of honors before reasons and willing to ignore rational battle tactics as they often state that the Imperial troops must always crush their enemy in the frontal assault to make they enemy crumble at the might of the Imperial army and their glorious victory to the point of disregarding the nature of the battle scenarios and their enemies. The most well-known example is during the JSDF Blitzkrieg Offensive when an Oprichnina commander willing to throw thousands Imperial troops at a platoon of tanks to their death while never taking into consideration of how totally futile it is as all primitive Imperial weaponry unable to make even a tiny dent to the armor of the tank and thousands of Imperial troops meet their demise at the machine gun lines whilst not be able to inflict a single damage to the tank platoons. This kinds of strategy is also considered to be moronic even for the Empire's standard since even Pina and most of the Rose Order of Knight often chastise this kinds of thinking. They are very ruthless and have zero care about the well-being of their own troop, general and pro-war senator since they willing to sacrifice all of them for the sake of destroying the JSDF and the Loyalist no mater the cost of life might it takes. In order to make affirm their authority toward Imperial Troop and pro-war senator and generals, Oprichiki often use fear as incentive by threatening to kill their family members and confiscate their asset or stripping them off their job. One might consider them as the Empire's version of the Gestapo of Nazi Germany. They have no qualms in executing soldiers who they consider as cowards just because they retreat from certain deaths or not behaving brave enough. :Dulles: "I do not think the operation will fail, given the fighting strength here. Do you feel otherwise?" :Godasen: "Who knows? All plans start with the assumption of victory. But during the execution phase, the possibility of defeat arises. Oprichnik Dulles, why do you think this is the case?" :Dulles: “A lack of valor and fighting spirit. Without the will to attain victory, defeat is certain." :Godasen: "That I haven’t heard before. Defeat is due to a lack of will?" :Dulles: "What other reason could there be? Then, what do you think the reason is?" :Godasen: "Who knows? Battles sometimes turn on luck and opportunities, no? Sometimes the plan itself is flawed, for all we know." :Dulles:"Is that not the second time you have said this?" :Godasen: "Did I? Or did you misunderstand me?" :Dulles: "That may be so. I must have been mistaken. However, I feel that such comments about the Crown Prince, who sanctioned this operation, cannot be permitted." :Godasen: "I see. In other words, the burden of failure must fall on the man at the scene?" :Dulles: "Yes. That is so. That is why we Oprichniki are here." — Opichnina chief Dulles revealed the naive and moronic mindset of the Oprichnina and Zorzal toward warfare, much to Godasen's anger and disgust, depicted in volume 7 chapter 4 of the light novel. Extremely like Zorzal, the Oprichnina has a very naive and shortsighted outlook of warfare as they always think courage and strong will are the only factors to win in any battles and wars not strategies, tactics or advanced technology. This makes them always grossly underestimate the JSDF and gleefully exterminated any Imperial soldiers, commanders or generals who are not willing to charge toward their certain doom in front of the gun barrels of JSDF's soldiers, resulting in multiple failure and senseless massacres for the Imperial army. In addition, this blind belief also makes them behave fearlessly and cowardly towards the JSDF as they never seem to terrified of JSDF's firepower toward the Imperial army as long there are meat shields for them to throw at but they will cower in fear when they run out of expendible Imperial troops or the Imperial troops ignore their order and run away from the battlefield. As the result, most generals and pro-war senators, especially Godasen and Borhos greatly dislike the Oprichina in general due to their disregard for their life and well-being. The prime example for disregard against their own troop and generals is during a rescue operation by the JSDF and Deliah to rescue a last remaining Japanese captive from the Battle of Ginza captured by Zorzal's troop, when Oprichiki Dulles callously try to kill Godasen, a pro-war senator and general when Delilah makes him her hostage just to kill a small group of JSDF special force. Furthermore, they also act like a commissar since they are not even allows their own soldier to retreat against the superior firepower of the JSDF and force them to charge in suicide attacks against JSDF's firearm no matter how much casualty can occur. The Oprichiki also becomes a great target for sniper since killing them will make the Imperial Soldier to retreat rather than continue fighting. It is revealed that a lot of front line Imperial commanders and soldiers openly question why Zorzal could put these brainless commissars in the battlefield in the first place. Despite using fear to keep Imperial Troop as well as others pro-war senators and generals in line, their authority is not absolute since a lot of Imperial Troops willing to ignore their order to suicide charge against the JSDF and run for their life when JSDF's tank and attack helicopter overwhelm them with superior firepower. Furthermore, some Imperial soldiers and generals are willing to to kill the Oprichnina if they are being pushed too far by them in any suicide attacks. During the battle of Marais or Fyure, some pro-war senators and commanders reach their breaking point to the point of ordering their soldiers to chop the Oprichiki commander limb to limb after he refuses to let them surrender the JSDF massive firepower against their helpless troop. Plot Taking advantage of the power vacuum created by the emperor's poisoning, the ambitious and reckless prince Zorzal, supported by the imperial army and many delusional pro-war senators, staged a coup to take control of the Empire and reignite hostilities with the technologically superior nation of Japan. Inspired by the concept of Oprichnina from the Russian history in one of the book brought back from Japan by Pina, Zorzal created his own version of the Oprichnina, formally known as the "Committee for Protecting and Restoring the Primacy and Authority of the Emperor" in the Imperial Language, is the prince 's supreme instrument to fully establish his authority as new ruler of the Empire and eliminate all the supporters of Japan hidden within the imperial government and nobility. Their existence is not secret, and they have a lot of open members, but they also have spies searching for signs of opposition to the prince's regime. The Oprichnina are—by decree of Zorzal—infallible in their interpretation of the law. They never convict the wrong people, and while they may arrest and torture people who prove to be innocent, that is no fault of the Oprichnina. The most important qualification for becoming an Oprichnina agent is absolute loyalty to the imperial prince, which is closely followed by firm conviction in the Empire's invincibility to the point of delusional obsession. The actual competence and common sense of the agents are only of secondary importance. The Oprichnina were initially deployed some time after Zorzal El Caesar's Coup with the intent of rounding up pro-peace dissidents in the Empire. The Oprichnina raid the Tyueli Clan estate outside of Sadera. While Sherry Tyueli escapes the estate along with Marquis Casel, Sherry's parents are both killed in the raid. The Oprichnina later track Sherry and Casel to the Jade Palace, where Kōji Sugawara manages to convince the (Special Region native) guards to allow Sherry entry using the desperate ploy that Sherry is his bride-to-be. After the guards and the Rose-Order of Knights, also present at the time, refuse to grant the Oprichnina entry to the embassy, the Oprichnina engage the guards in combat, but are quickly forced to retreat because of the superior arms and armor of the guards. Zorzal is infuriated by their failure and orders the leader of the Oprichnina, Gimlet, executed. Zorzal then deploys 1000 Imperial Army regulars to attack the palace. During the raid on the Imperial Capital, several Oprichnina lead the regular soldiers in battle. One is killed in action when the JSDF shoot at the Imperial soldiers. Another one was at a checkpoint and ordered the soldiers to shoot down Bozes, calling her a traitor to the Empire. One more Oprichnina was seen ordering soldiers to form a wall to stop the JSDF from escaping. However, the Humvees saw them in advance and quickly steered away. The Imperials were completely baffled and shocked, with the Oprichnina stationed there remarking how fast they were. During the Imperial Civil War, Tyuule suggests that they also act as Zorzal's political commissars, supervisory officers responsible for the political education (total submission) and organization of the army's unit they are assigned to. Unknown to Zorzal and his goons, Tyuule intentionally let these muscle-brains into the ranks of the Imperial Army to reduce their total effectiveness as a whole since she knows fully well how counter-productive the Oprichnina really is in the battlefield. Furthermore, by letting the Oprichikis into the army formation, the command structure will be split into two, which will cause huge command conflict. In many battles, the Oprichikis are often tasked with the duty to maintain the morale of the troops during their massive campaigns, often in the face of staggering casualties, especially by executing soldiers guilty of cowardice and desertion -- even though they are totally helpless against the JSDF and the battle is doomed to begin with. The noticeable trait of the Oprichnina is that they have zero concepts of tactical retreat and naively thinks that pushing tons of soldiers towards the enemy in the frontal assault can win any battle. For these reasons they are regarded with a mixture of fear, despise and hatred by rank-and-file legionary -- and not a few of their officers. Oprichnina is essentially the cohesive force, albeit weak and highly ineffective, that keeps the imperial army standing and willing to fight against an overwhelming enemy like the JSDF. The Oprichiki often acts as superior to general and pro-war senators during the war as an extension of Zorzal's will. However, their utter disregard to the life of Imperial troops and their idiotic approach toward warfare making them being a target for both JSDF snipers and their own troops since Imperial troops will retreat from JSDF firing line if the Oprichnina in charged gets his head blown up and a lot of Imperial commanders, as well as soldiers, will pierce their swords through the chest of the Oprichnina commissar when they are being thrown into meaningless slaughter. Some Imperial commanders even question why Zorzal could put these fools among their ranks. After Zorzal's death and the destruction of his regime, the organization is disbanded with dozens of members arrested or escape from prosecution by JSDF or the legitimate government. The surviving members also forced to turn into banditry to survive as there are no place left in Falmart that will tolerate them as even their families, especially pro-war young nobles come from family members that support Pro-peace faction, disown them and consider them as a disgrace. Trivia *The Oprichnina is a reference to the real-world secret police of the same name (also sometimes known as Oprichniki) created by the 16th-century Russian tsar Ivan IV "the Terrible". Their uniforms take inspiration from the symbol used to represent the real-world Oprichnina, a dog/wolf's head with a broom. The dog (or wolf)'s head represented loyalty to the Tsar and the willingness to sniff out treason and the broom represented the willingness to cleanse the country of those conspiring against the Tsar. The main difference between Zorzal's Oprichnina and the Earth historical Oprichnina is that that Ivan IV never uses the Oprichinia as commissars. Finally, Ivan IV was smart enough to modernize his army while Zorzal stuck with his outdated army. *All Oprichikis seems to be utterly lunatic as they shows not only they have no fear towards JSDF's destructive military arsenals but also unable to comprehend situations that show clearly that the Imperial Army is totally lost their engagement with the JSDF. *Pina Co Lada actually indirectly responsible for the establishment of the Oprichnina as the book that depicted Russian history she brought from Japan inspired Zorzal to create the organization with total resemblance to the Russian counterpart. *The Oprichikis never realize that they are the big target for JSDF snipers as none of them realized that the JSDF knows them very well. *The Oprichnina comprises mostly young nobles and Imperial military officer who are equally air-headed, hot-headed, and delusional as Zorzal. *Cicero La Maltose's nephew is one of the Oprichnina. He was killed by JSDF sniper during the Imperial Civil War and his uncle and the rest of his family don't bother to mourn him as they refer him as a disgrace. *The Oprichiki is a reference for the Soviet Era NKVD Political Commissars who often execute retreating soldiers during suicide charge against German position during WW2. However, unlike Soviet Commissars, they have zero sense of strategy and lack of any concept of tactical retreats. *The JSDF, Rose Order of Knight and Loyalist often derogatorily refer them as toilet cleaner. However, during the late stage of the Imperial Civil War, most Imperial soldiers, pro-war senators and generals also begin to call them with this derogatory name due to their ruthlessness and lack of concern about their life. *Due to their utterly lack of rationality and tendency in listening to strategies, they are considered to be far more idiotic than all pro-war generals and senators and they rivls Zorzal in the brainless department. *It is revealed that even a moronic strategist like Helm Fule Maio horrified at the Oprichnina's tendency to kill Imperial troops to boost morale to the point that he even calls them as idiots. Gallery Category:Terminology Category:Groups Category:Zorzal's Faction Category:Pro-War Faction